Today the Leadville Race Series opened registration to the 2012 Camp of Champions! The Camp of Champions will feature Six-time LT 100 Champion Dave Wiens, Two-time LT100 Champion Bryson Perry and the 2007 Ladies Champion Gretchen Reeves. Camp participants will ride, dine, and socialize with three of Leadville’s finest champions in addition to a host of experienced Leadville Trail 100 Buckle wearing guides.

The camp will be July 5-8, 2012 and all of the Leadville 100 course will be ridden. There are 50 spots available that include race entry and the cost is $2,000. There are an additional 25 spots available for $1,000 without race entry. You must call to register. Get all the information on the Leadville Race Series site.

I’m a bit surprised that they opened camp registration today since the race entry lottery winners won’t be notified until later this week. I have my fingers crossed that I’ll get picked in the lottery again. After DNFing that last 3 years, I’m even more motivated now to get back and get my 6th finish.

Carmichael Training Systems also opened registration for their training camps today that include race entry. The CTS camp spots though are given out through a lottery. The deadline for the CTS camp lottery is February 29, 2012 so those that entered the Leadville 100 lottery can wait until they get notified whether they’re in or not.

CTS will have 3 camps that are 2 days each and cost $1500 including race entry. It’s $1225 for those that get an entry through the lottery and those spots will be first come first serve instead of by lottery. If money isn’t a factor, you can get top notch coaching and a private camp for $12,424 (elevation at the summit of the Columbine Climb).

Here’s a reminder that Race Across the Sky, which covers the 2010 Leadville 100 is in movie theaters tomorrow evening, November 4th. It includes a live panel discussion with participating athletes Levi Leipheimer, Rebecca Rusch, Erik Weihenmayer and others. Although there will be an encore presentation on November 9th, it isn’t showing at any Colorado Springs theaters on that date.

Last year the movie sold out in many locations. I’m guessing that was a least partly because Lance Armstrong was in it but I’d get my tickets in advance. From the trailer, it looks like they got some great shots of the race again.

Tickets are now on sale for the Race Across the Sky 2010 on November 4th. It includes a live panel discussion with participating athletes Levi Leipheimer, Rebecca Rusch, Erik Weihenmayer and others. There will be an encore presentation on November 9th.

Last year the movie sold out in many locations. I don’t know if that was because Lance Armstrong was in it but I’d get my tickets in advance. From the trailer, it look like they got some great shots of the race again.

Earlier this week a bagel was listed on eBay as being Dave Wiens’ bagel from the Leadville 100. He dropped it on the course and a fan picked it up. It’s a simple mini-bagel with PB&J made by his Olympic bronze medalist wife, Susan DeMattei.

It seemed like someone just being goofy but all the money from the auction is to go to the non-profit Gunnison Trails. As the week has gone on, it’s turned into something much bigger. Now Dave Wiens is giving the winner of the auction one of his big Leadville 100 belt buckles. Oakley has also stepped up and is throwing in a pair of Livestrong Radar Path Glasses.

Dave Wiens has confirmed all of this on his twitter account. There isn’t much time left on the eBay auction and it ends tomorrow morning, Sunday August 22nd, at 08:03 AM PDT.

I’m up at Leadville today getting ready for the Leadville 100. Guess the winner and their finish time and if you pick the winner and are closest to their time you’ll win an UltraRob.com t-shirt. Although Lance Armstrong has said he won’t race there’s plenty of other potential winners to pick from. Some of them are Dave Wiens, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Levi Leipheimer, Matt Shriver, Jeremiah Bishop, Todd Wells and Alban Lakata and here’s the complete Leadville 100 entrant list.

You can also win a t-shirt for predicting at what mile I drop out or what my finish time is. Here are some hints on guessing my time. I weigh 50 lbs more than when I finished in 8:18 in 2003. I’m also even 20 lbs heavier than when I did 11:21 in 2008. I started training earlier this year than the 4th of July like I did 2 years ago but my fitness was really slow coming around.

To win a t-shirt, you must submit your guess by tomorrow’s 6:30 AM start time.

Lance Armstrong and Dave Wiens are to be back. Other cycling stars such as Levi Leipheimer, Tinker Juarez, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Ned Overend and Rebecca Rusch are on the list.

A big change for this year is that only the top 100 from last year have their bib number the same as their finishing place the year before. In the past it was easy to look at others numbers and get a feel for how well you were doing.

It’s only 3 weeks until the Leadville 100 and only in the last couple weeks has my fitness gotten to the point that I have been able to get in good, long rides. I’ve been struggling with my weight the last few years and I’m even more overweight this year. It’s going to be tough for me to get a finish this year but I’ll line up and see what happens.

Last night was the showing of the Race Across the Sky which is about the 2009 Leadville 100 mountain bike race. The movie was sold out in many locations across the country. It was planned as a one night showing but because of it’s popularity, there is going to be an encore on November 12th, 2009.

There were 1400 racers entered in the Leadville 100 mountain bike race with some racers taking over 12 hours to finish. That makes for lots of interesting stories to be condensed down to about an hour and a half. Not surprisingly the focus of the movie was on Lance Armstrong, Dave Wiens and a few of the other top racers.

In typical Dave Wiens style, he thanked the volunteers at the top of the Columbine Climb as he went by. It was entertaining to watch Lance Armstrong trying to fix his flat late in the race. In the short panel discussion shown before and after the race, he admits he can’t fix a flat to save his life. At the finish line, Dave Wiens said, “Last year Lance was just off the couch, this year he was just off the Tour de France.”

Although the movie focused on the leaders, there were shots of average riders throughout the movie. Riders farther back were shown suffering as they pushed their bikes up the Columbine climb. There was an emotional scene as riders that were too slow missed the time cut-off at the Twin Lakes aid station and were forced to stop racing.

The emotional and inspirational story of Roxanne Hall was highlighted. Last year she was hit by a car while training for the Leadville 100. Her back was broken in several places and she had many other life threatening injuries. Not only did she fight back from her injuries but she raced this year.

Grace Ragland chatted briefly as she hike-a-biked up the Columbine Climb. She was diagnosed with MS 20 years ago if I remember correctly.

I saw about a a dozen racers that I know. One was Ricky McDonald. He’s one of a handful of racers that have finished the Leadville 100 MTB all 16 years. We used to race shorter NORBA races together back in the ’90s. He’s still riding the same bike and riding in his Team Huffy Fred shirt.

Overall I thought the movie was great. It gives family and friends a glimpse into our experience that we have when we race it. Sure it doesn’t give the full feeling of being there racing or crewing but it would be impossible to portray it all in a movie.

There were some complaints about the video and audio quality and the soundtrack on the Yahoo Leadville 100 list. I thought the video was plenty good although there were some water drops on the lens a couple times and occasional video shaking on the rough roads. I’m not a good judge of music. It would have to be really terrible for it to bother me. There were also some complaints about focusing too much on the leaders.

Maybe I’m not enough of a movie critic, but I enjoyed the Race Across the Sky for what it was. My biggest complaint would be that it doesn’t show how steep and tough the climbs are. I was with a group of 16 people and I only heard talk about it being great and no complaints.

Don’t Go to the Encore If …

You’re looking for a compelling story line

You don’t want the movie to be about Lance Armstrong and Dave Wiens

You don’t like to hear Bob Roll’s wild descriptive phrases

You want it to be about your Leadville 100 experience

You expect Hollywood quality filming

If none of the above apply and you missed the movie last night, you should go see it on November 12th. Locations aren’t listed yet but check the Race Across the Sky encore info page soon for details.

Last week Citizen Pictures posted the trailer for the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike movie they’re producing. It shows some of the awesome views you get during the race. Not that I notice much during the race but I know them well from training rides. Since they had a helicopter, they show a great bird’s eye view of the Columbine Climb.

The movie is to be in theaters next month. I haven’t found any info yet on when and where. I certainly hope it’ll be here but I’d drive to Denver to see it. I talked to them briefly the day before the race but didn’t get any more info than to keep checking the website.